10.4.2012 (UNI) Bombay high court today directed the Maharashtra government to give a compensation of Rs 20 lakh to the mother of Khwaja Yunus, an accused in the 2002 Ghatkopar bus blast, who died here in police custody.

A division bench of Justices A M Khanvilkar and P D Kode was hearing the application filed by Aasiya Begum, seeking compensation from the state and also prosecution of police officials, who are responsible for the custodial death of her son.

The court said the state should pay the amount within eight weeks time and later on it should be recovered from the salary of the accused police officers.

The court turned down the request of the petitioner to prosecute ten more police personnel, while saying that trial in this connection is going on and hence if new material will be placed before the court, the trial court can incorporate the other accused.

Advocate Desai also brought to the court's notice that in the course of its investigation against the officers, in connection with Khwaja's death, the state CID had named 14 officers in its affidavit submitted before the court in October 2006.

The state, however, sanctioned prosecution of only four officers, who were allegedly took Yunus from Mumbai to Aurangabad.

The report included draft charges against the officers for the state's approval. Though Yunus' body was not found, the state-CID had stated after its investigation that he had died in custody.

The government said it had sanctioned prosecution of only four officers as it had material available only against these persons.

Yunus, an engineer from Aurangabad in Central Maharashtra, died after being allegedly beaten up in police custody following his arrest in January 2003. The blast in the corporation-run bus in suburban Ghatkopar had killed two persons and injured many more. UNI